The former
Navy SEAL wouldn't have done that unless he were "painting" a target for an
aircraft, because if the terrorists had cell phones with night vision
capabilities, they
could see the laser beam, and trace it back to his location.

Mr. Woods'
repeated requests for military assistance were turned down, according to
"sources who were on the ground in Benghazi," Fox
News reported Friday (10/26).

A reporter for
a Denver television station asked President Barack Hussein Obama twice if it
were true those requests had been denied."Both times, he repeated his standard call for a thorough
investigation," without answering his question, Kyle
Clark reported.

But the
president implied he'd ordered help be provided.

"I gave the
directive, to make sure we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we
need to do," he told Mr. Clark.

If such a
directive had been issued, there'd be a paper trail.The administration has stonewalled requests
for documentation.

The day after
Mr. Obama's evasions in Denver, an NSC
spokesman said: "neither the president nor anyone else in the White House
denied any requests for assistance in Benghazi."

So who did?

"No one at any
level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need," said a CIA
spokeswoman.

Troops weren't
sent because military commanders didn't have a clear picture of what was
happening in Benghazi, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday (10/25).

He, the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the commander of Africa Command,
"felt very strongly that we could not put forces at risk in that situation," Mr.
Panetta said.

Hogwash. We
deploy military forces all the time with much less information than we had
about the situation in Benghazi.Mr.
Woods was in constant radio contact. Video was being fed "in near real time" to
situation rooms in Washington from the consulate's security cameras. For much of the fight, a surveillance drone
was overhead.

Perhaps
because vets know Mr. Panetta's "clear picture" excuse was preposterous, the
story was changed. Troops weren't
sent because the Marines who comprise the Quick Reaction Force were in the
midst of a rotation, and not immediately available.

What about the
aircraft Mr. Woods evidently believed was on station?F/A-18 fighter bombers could have arrived in
less than an hour, AC-130U Spectre gunships in less than two. A drone
was circling overhead. If it were
armed with Hellfire missiles, it could have taken out the mortar.

"Somebody high
up in the administration made the decision that no assistance would be
provided, and let our people be killed," said retired Admiral
James "Ace" Lyons, former commander of the Pacific Fleet. "The person who made that callous decision
needs to be brought to light and held accountable."

The suspect
list is very small.It could only have
been the secretary of defense, AFRICOM commander Gen. Carter Ham, or someone at
the White House - such as National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Mr. Obama's
Rasputin Valerie Jarrett, or Mr. Obama himself.

Gen. Ham has
been relieved, Mr. Panetta announced Oct. 18.The Pentagon denied a report Gen. Ham was fired because he tried to send
help.

When he
received an order to stand down, Gen. Ham's response "was to screw it, he was
going anyhow," a Louisiana blogger said he was told by "someone inside the
military that I trust entirely."

But "within 30
seconds to a minute after making the move to respond, his second in command
apprehended General Ham and told him that he was now relieved of his command,"
his military source told "Tiger
Droppings."

The defense
secretary never explicitly said it was he who ordered the military to stand
down.To the military ear, what he said
Oct. 26 sounded like advice, not an order.

Mr. Panetta was
in the Oval Office an hour after the attack began, according to White House
logs. If he'd issued the order to stand
down, he'd have done it in front of the president.

Harry Truman
kept in the Oval Office a sign which said: "the buck stops here."Barack Obama has spent his presidency passing
the buck. But he cannot evade
responsibility for this unconscionable decision.Roger Simon at PJ Media thinks Mr.
Obama is guilty of treason. It may
be worse.Mr. Obama may be an accomplice
to murder.

Jack
Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant
secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national
security writer for the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette.